With Monday being a holiday, we crammed our five-day work week into four days! Luckily, Buzzer worked extra hard to keep things running smoothly!
On Tuesday, Ron taught Sam how to do the Status Report for our Emergency Management Performance Grant. This grant “provides state, local, tribal and territorial emergency management agencies with the resources required for implementation of the National Preparedness System and works toward the National Preparedness Goal of a secure and resilient nation. The EMPG’s allowable costs support efforts to build and sustain core capabilities across the prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery mission areas.” ~FEMA EMPG
The Status Report includes information on our activities for the quarter, including training, exercises, projects, improvements, and other efforts to fulfill our core capabilities. If you follow our blog or Facebook page, you will see we are bringing an extensive amount of information and transparency to you that wasn’t previously available.
Tuesday, we also began our next “Super Secret Squirrel” project, which will be rolled out soon. It is an initiative our office is taking to bring emergency preparedness to the residents and visitors of our great county in a fun, inexpensive, portable way! We are very excited about the project and look forward to the response who hope it will garner!
On Wednesday, we had one of the most important trainings we receive each year. Though the pandemic caused us to interact in a virtual setting, the Pipeline Association of Missouri (PAM) did a great job with the Homeland Security Exercise & Evaluation Program (HSEEP) exercise for this year! The virtual map which allowed us to see the area affected by a pipeline incident was the highlight of the training, as it allowed us to understand the different aspects and repercussions of a large-scale incident!
Wednesday also brought another round of training for Sam in regards to the EMPG. This time, she learned the procedure for reporting the bills and other financial information for the EMA. Ron patiently explained the process, answering questions and demonstrating both the software, as well as the hardcopy recordkeeping of the system.
Thursday, we participated in the Great Shakeout! DROP, COVER, and HOLD ON! Ron demonstrated what NOT to do:
Sam and Buzzer demonstrated the RIGHT way to respond:
On Thursday, we had THREE conference calls. Though some may question why we need to “attend” so many virtual meetings and conference calls, let us assure you, they are absolutely necessary. They allow us to keep the flow of communication and information going throughout the county and region so that if a catastrophic event occurs, we have the ability to respond quickly and much more efficiently.
Our first call on Thursday was a County Wide Safety Meeting. This meeting involved representative from schools, the cities, law enforcement, fire representatives, the EMA, and more. Discussion centered around the physical safety of school children, rather than focusing solely on COVID-19.
Our second call on Thursday was the Weekly COVID-19 Conference Call hosted by our office. We invite all city, county, first responding agencies, chambers of commerce, agencies, business owners, schools, and MORE to these weekly calls to get an update of how our county is doing and any new procedures or information regarding the pandemic is being handled. We keep notes on the calls and post them on our COVID-19 page.
Our third call of the day was the Region F Conference Call. This is a larger version of our county’s weekly conference call, which includes all of the counties in our region where we share updates and get a sense of how things look on a larger scale. We share information on resources, upcoming training, and anything else that might affect us as a group.
On Friday, we were back to work on projects! Our Super Secret Squirrel is in the next stage of her project which we hope to roll out within the next couple of weeks! It will be extremely useful and helpful to the residents and visitors of Camden County as they prepare for emergencies!
Ron has completed the tiling in one of the restrooms! He has moved on to flooring and preparing to install the toilet and the new sink and cabinet! This is a MUCH needed update to the restrooms, especially in the event that the EMA needs to use the Emergency Operations Center for a large-scale emergency.
What a week! That’s all for now, so we’ll see you all back here next Friday (hopefully!) with more updates!
Camden County, MO Emergency Management Agency 